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October 30, 2014

The Skippy Dress

Woo Hoo. It has been ages since I've been in blogland, but Kate and I are back, on our new site. You will find some things still missing and being moved across and added, but it is time to start blogging again because I have so many projects that I don't even know where to begin.

First up though, I absolutely must get this dress blogged about. Its the Skippy dress by Make It Perfect. I actually patterned tested this one ages ago when it was first released in One Thimble Ezine back in May as the Daisy Chain Dress. Toni rereleased this pattern three months later on her own website and changed the name to the Skippy dress. So for those of you with the Daisy Chain Dress, it is the same dress.

Its no secret that my favourite thing to sew is a knit dress. I live in knits, they don't need a whole lot of ironing (sometimes a little, but nothing like cotton) and they are super comfy. I am not kidding when I say this is one of my all time favourite women's dresses ever. Anyway, enough rambling, here is my first sew up of the dress, and yes it is a terrible photo, but if I wait to get more, it will be next year before I know it and this blog post won't be done.

I used a double sided ponte knit from Girl Charlee for this dress. I was hoping it would be better quality than the usual girl charlee knits - I do find they fade and pill quickly, but unfortunately it too is starting to pill. Girl Charlee has heaps of good prints and designs and I probably wouldn't mind so much if I got them shipped for free, but when shipping 4 yards costs $25 just for the shipping, and time to sew for myself does not happen all that often these days, I would rather spend a little extra on top quality fabrics that will last longer. But it is a really cute dress. It may look a little short for some here but I tend to lengthen most dress patterns, but when testing I sew up as is for the first one. Whilst not super tall, I am 172cm tall, which is above average for most patterns, and I have long limbs, so things tend to look a little shorter on me.

I find the back view especially flattering. The gentle A line of the skirt stops the fabric grabbing too much over the lower hips, and the drop waist band means those extra bits around the waist at the back (you know those ones that tend to make you look like a christmas ham from the back if you are wearing things a little too tight up around the waist) are completely hidden.

For my second attempt, I went ahead and started putting it through the fabric testing process. You can always tell when I like a pattern because I start to experiment with fabrics and styles. I made this dress out of lace that had a tiny bit of stretch one way, and some white cotton jersey from The Remnant Warehouse. I added a scalloped hemline, which turned out OK, but could have been executed a little better.

The dress is a little short and tight for my taste - I feel like Im getting to an age where I just shouldn't be wearing clothing too tight or two short, but I think I'll make another over this summer, because it completely changes the dress from casual to a little more dressy using the lace.

For my third dress, I used a Merino Wool Jersey from The Fabric Store and left the pocket off. I lengthened the sleeve and added a lace motif. I only have one photo of this and it is not great, so sorry. But I got a lot of wear out of this dress over winter.

I don't think I even have a photo of my fourth dress! It was another long sleeve one. This is my fifth one - and its hard to see in the photo

This one is my favourite. I made it for the trip we took to Fiji in July. I had to tell myself not to wear it everyday! It is made from some Lyocell I got from The Fabric Store earlier this years and I have to say, it is a wonderful fabric. Ive been curious about Lyocell for years. Some of my favourite shirts that Ive bought over the years have been made from Lyocell, but its not a fabric that I've ever seen for sale. I got some to try as soon as I saw it. It is not a thick fabric, but it is so comfortable and soft and drapes beautifully - but not as heavily as viscose if that makes sense? And even better, it breathes really well, so it is perfect for hot, humid weather.

Because the lyocell is thin and drapes so well, when I sewed it up originally, I wasn't happy with the way the skirt sat. So I took it off and instead cut a couple of big long recta's and pleated them along until they fit the band and tried that instead, and I love it. I sewed the pleats down about 10cm on easy pleat, and it creates such a nice swishy skirt. It was perfect for this fabric. I hope they get more Lyocell in this Summer.

Pleating the skirt made me start to think that perhaps I could get away with a woven pleated skirt with knit or the rest of it. And then Bari J designed the most beautiful fabric and Art gallery released t and I had to try it. This is Emmy Grace by art Gallery Knit on the top, with Emmy Grace quilting otto for the skirt. This is a really pretty grown up dress, but it still is soft and comfortable to wear because the top half is knit. And for the band I used some random scraps from the stash that matched perfectly, proving that it does sometimes pay to be a hoarder of scraps. Connor (my 6 year old) tried out the new Camera for the first time and took these for me. Not bad considering he had to look through the little hole and hold it still to get a good shot. I'll make a photographer out of that boy yet!!

So now maybe you can see why I love this dress. It really is a blank canvas that you can use to create so many different looks. Pop over to the Make It Perfect Blog here to see Toni's blog tour and check out all the variations. And if you have a copy of this pattern but haven't been game to sew it up….go ahead, I dare you….it's a little beauty.